We Are Legends
by RedDead
Summary: A group of survivors try to carry each other through the end of their world. And they are not alone. What will be the cost of their survival, if they even do survive? READ & REVIEW!
1. The End

I was nineteen when the plague hit. It seems so long ago, and it was. But time blended together for me. I'm not sure if I have survived as long as I think I have. But that doesn't matter.

I'm alive.

----

The outbreak started in Los Angeles, and before anything could be done, it had traveled to New York, traveling north and east from those cities. By the time the government recognized the treat and acted accordingly, most of the north and some of the south was destined to be lost.

Rumors were heard about surviving colonies in Vermont and other places, but that was almost entirely engulfed by yellow journalism.

Stories of the dead coming back to life, attacking humans and draining them of their blood sparked article after article about vampires, and anything relevant and useful vanished from the media. Not that there was much use before. But the tabloids, and indeed some of the biggest newspapers in the world became them, had one good effect.

They knew what was coming. Houston became a haven for the uninfected, a place where the survivors waited in fear, and a place where the brightest minds in the nation gathered in a last chance for a cure.

The city held for nearly a year.

In that time, the water and power hubs were remodeled and upgraded, becoming almost entirely self-sufficient. The city became its own being.

But even the most well-designed stronghold was doomed to fail. In a matter of weeks, the plagues' progress in seizing the world jumped forward. The port of Houston was ready to evacuate the people living in there to another country, maybe somewhere in Europe, and then the disease began afflicting those within a few hundred miles from Houston, they radioed for help.

They never got an answer.

Desperate, the city integrated all of the population into one area of town. But there was one problem.

They weren't immune.

Not all of them, at least.

Of the seven million people who thought they were immune, thirteen were.

----

Musing in my armchair, I pondered what was left of this world. I knew these thoughts only brought heart and headache, but I could not resign myself to defeat so easily. Yet over time I found and would find that I thought less and less about the outside world. This was my world; here, where I was trapped. Maybe forever. I knew that there was little point in thinking alone, yet there was nothing else to do. It was five in the morning; too late to go back to sleep, too early to go out.

How I hate this time of day.

The only part I hate more is sunset. That's when my world is handed over, and I am helpless.

Sighing to myself, I rose and put on some clothes. A pair of jeans, some rough and worn combat boots, an undershirt and a leather jacket: those were my favorites to wear.

The combat boots were good for running and climbing over some of the worse terrain, and Houston had some of the worst.

Leather was an all around useful thing. Though not too heavy, it was durable and protected well from claws and teeth of all sorts, making it ideal for protection in hard times.

The jeans I had covered with another layer of denim, so it protected just as well as the leather. It never hurt to have protective clothing on. We had learned that a long time ago.

Slowly I began my descent down the stairs. As my boots landed on the floor below they were greeted by the soft clanking of a metal spoon against a glass bowl. Turning the corner into the kitchen, I was met with the site of Vladimir Puten, a big burly Russian who may have been affiliated with the dead Russian mob. That's what some of the others had said, but I doubted it.

"Vlad, what are you doing in here?" I asked the Russian who was in the process of finishing up his cereal.

"I am out of Coco Puffs," he responded in his thick Russian accent that did not fit the statement in the least bit.

"So you decided to come in here?" I asked as I sat down and poured myself some cereal. The Russian nodded with his whole body. Pausing for a moment, I tentatively asked: "Those nightmares again?"

It was a soft subject for the huge man, and sure enough a tear welled in his eye as he nodded again, this time mostly with his lower lip. As another tear formed, a soft sobbing could be heard deep within the man. Reassuringly patting him on the back, I mumbled something about how I was sorry.

Through his whispered choking, Vlad asked him, "How is it that you do not cry?"

Exhaling sharply, I turned my head and thought for a minute. "I suppose, it's because I've run out of tears."

**Well, what do you think? Please review! This is not a fic of the movie, just so you know. **


	2. Jobs

The group met up in the quad of their building, and as usual, I was standing in front of them. "Alright, what's the damage look like?"

A tall but muscular man with a few flecks of grey hair interspersed between his brown locks spoke up. "Well, the sound-proofer's guard layer suffer some mild damage on the west side, but it's more severe along the southern side."

"Do you think you'll need more metal than what you've got?"

"No, but I'll need help if it's defiantly going to be done by the safety limit."

"Okay. Take one guy and have him help you. If either of you want, we can switch him out by high noon, or if someone else is finished, he can help you."

Reiner nodded. He had been a multi-talented guy but when we realized the extent that our home base needed fortification, he studied up on what he already knew and became an excellent craftsman. Nearly everything from our defenses and fortifications to our weaponry passed through his hands, inspected by them, if not made by them.

I nodded as Reiner took Gaston with him. Though hard-headed, Gaston was smart and fit, another well- rounded man with many different talents. He wore a tee shirt and jeans, complete with biker shades he got from somewhere.

As I was about to ask Carter to go to the fields, Vlad walked up with his hand raised. "Actually, I was wondering if I could go to the fields for today?" I smiled and nodded; the garlic fields were a place where Vlad went when he wanted to be by himself and escape the chaos of the world. Sadly, everyone had to come back from the fields at some point.

Carter, a slim kid just out of his teens spoke up. "I'll hit the store then. Might as well check on the generator while I'm over there."

"Alright. Take Vince with you, in case you can't fix it."

"Gotcha, man. C'mon Vince, don't want you getting' lost," he said to Vince, a muscular black guy who never said much, waving his hand for Vince to follow. As the last three went two separate ways, Vlad shouted over his back: "Get me some Coco Puffs, too!"

Turning to two other guys, I said, "Danny, go check the water. The hot waters taking too long and I want any problem fixed before it gets worse. Chris, go check the power plant for our area, and signal if you need help with it."

Danny, a blue collar stereotype with a mustache and sleeveless flannel went a different way, and Chris, an extremely tall and thin nerd stereotype with a pungent natural body odor started following after Vlad, then went down a different street.

"Cody, I want you to clean the apartments and inspect every tool, do the dishes, monitor the radio and listen to what someone else may need. Later I want you to check the garage and the emergency stock. I think there might be a way in through the metal fencing."

At that, Cody, another scrawny white kid with wheat colored hair did what he normally did. "What? Why do I always get the crappy jobs?" I winced and squeezed the bridge of my nose.

"Because, you-"

"Don't have a particular skill. Yeah, I know. You've been telling me that crap forever. Just let me go out there for once." He never stopped pleaded.

"Cody, I've told you a thousand times. If you want to do something, you have to know how to do it."

"And how the hell am I supposed to know how to fix a generator?!"

"Read the damn manual! But read it after you check out the garage. And make sure to turn the safety lights on!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." With that he turned on his heels and headed back into the base.

"And get someone to cover your back!" I shouted after him. That boy never listened. I angrily rounded on the rest of the men waiting for their orders.

"Tommy, you do maintenance on the cars."

Tom, a former auto-mechanic, readjusted his hat and shook his head, his ponytail flopping madly. "I'm gonna clean house first. The Ram I know works perfect."

"Alright. Get to it." Tom walked over to another part of the house. A few moments later, the roar of a Hemi broke the silence, and then a black Dodge Ram was visible for a few seconds as it rounded the exit into the street.

----

Satisfied so far, I walked across the street to a modified lab that served as our main area for studying the vampires. Inside, the glass walls hooked to the right and left, but without hesitation, I went left, then down another hallway into the main lab for the Doc.

The man of the hour stood over a lifeless corpse lying on an examiner's table, a large stake in its chest.

"Need anything, Doc?" I asked as he looked over the corpse.

"As a matter of fact, I do. A few bodies would do; undead, if you please."

"You certainly are going through them fast. What's the sudden need for?" I asked as I poked the body. Doc swatted my hand away.

"Well," he sighed, "if you must know, I think I am beginning to fully understand our enemy. However, I can't be sure, and you know how I won't tell my theories until I test at least once, and thus I need more bodies."

"Bodies. Got it. Anything else?"

"Just make sure they aren't dead."

I cocked an eyebrow at the Doc.

"Oh, you know what I mean! Just get me the bodies!"

Smirking to myself, I exited the lab room then followed the maze of hallways to the back area.

----

There Dr. Neil Hamilton and Cassidy were busy working on their newest project. Along a fold out table there was a large brown cloth that covered several objects that I could only guess as to what they were.

Since neither one was in sight, I made to look under the tarp, but as soon as my hand touched the tip of the fabric, someone shouted out: "If you ever hope to use those, I suggest you keep your hands off of them."

Turning around, I observed both Hamilton and Cassidy carrying a large scarecrow, with straw for stuffing, and a thick metal pipe extending out of it. "Ready, Cassidy?" Hamilton asked.

"Yes, sir."

"On three then. One. Two. Three." At the final count, they raised the scarecrow up, readjusted its angle, and then inserted the metal pipe into a hole in the ground that Hamilton had made long ago. Pushing it around to check its wobble, Hamilton then patted it on the chest, satisfied with its fixed position.

He wiped his hands together, then against the tail of his brown sports jacket, and walked over to me.

"Good morning," he said in his light English accent. He had a wide jaw and brown hair that went strait up and was shaved flat after a few inches, and circular rimmed glasses. Hamilton possessed not only a great mind, but he knew how to keep it cool. Once he learned something, he rarely forgot it. He had been the one who had, along with me, had contacted and gathered the survivors. He also found, then planned out the fortifications of our home; because of his brains and inventive spirit he was commonly called 'Q'. Yet for the last week, he had kept mostly to himself in the shop, not allowing anyone into it save for Cassidy. Not even I had gotten a peak at the breakthrough Hamilton and Doc said they had come across.

Cassidy was an ex-Marine who fought in Iraq, and his skill with tools, coupled with his place as an engineer, were the reasons why he was Hamilton's right hand man. He was taller and more muscular than Hamilton, but always showed the man great respect. Being an ex-Marine (only leaving because the government was destroyed) he kept his old gear and always had his respectable crew cut.

I walked over to the scarecrow, touching the rough straw, feeling the itchy cotton. "What's this thing for?"

"You'll see around noon when everyone gets back for lunch. Now go do something else."

Accepting the fact that Q had his secrets, I walked over to the adjacent warehouse.

At the door I undid the ten deadbolts with the keys underneath a patch of weeds. I never kept the keys on my person; I refused to take the chance of loosing them.

With the deadbolts removed, the heavy metal door swung open following the addition of a good amount of force. There was a back up door directly behind the large metal one, for support and an extra line of defense. Instead of a series of deadbolts, this only required the removal of a thick titanium bar then a heavy push against it.

After a tremendous heave of my body weight, the safety door gave way. Moving to the left side of the inner warehouse, I felt by memory the position of a series of light switches. My fingers moved down the line, flicking them softly against the base, and in front of me there was a sudden _VUENT! _and then three long rows of large, powerful lights filled the whole of the second part of the warehouse with light. Along several aisles twenty feet high were piled three layers of kennels. Knowing what was coming, the dogs and cats began to howl and bark.

There were easily five hundred dogs and cats here.

All saved.

All immune.

Moving over to what could be described as the central hub, I pulled down on more large levers, and a loud crackling sound began on one side of the room then moved to the other, following along its set path. Inside the metal tubing tons of dog food was delivered straight to every dog's kennel for breakfast and dinner. Walking back out the door and giving the dogs time to eat, I went up to Q.

"Hey, Q. Are the electric fences working again?"

Q looked at me from behind the scarecrow. "Yes. And if they fail, there is the emergency gate. Wouldn't want those poor pups to get out. They already have had to suffer so much."

I smiled, nodded and vanished back inside. Both Q and I had a great love for animals, and these poor dogs would have no chance without us. It took all of the dogs a little under five minutes to finish off their breakfast. Once they were all finished, I walked over to the main hub again and pulled down on what resembled a large breaker.

All of the cages on the bottom row were released, and hundreds of dogs rushed out, running over to the garage door that separated them from their play area.

Of course, I thought, I forgot to open the door. I moved over to another switch, and when I flipped it, the topmost iron beam began to retract. The four others which combined to form one solid wall had not been wired, but the gears and motor were in place.

I'll get to it, I thought as I brushed it off. I was always forgetting something I had to do. There was just too much to do. Even for all the progress that we've made in less than six months, we always have some new project to do, and coupled with the massive amount of work that was mandatory to survive, things where getting out of hand.

I sighed to myself as I walked over to the large door, and grabbed onto the handle of the second highest beam. It was hardest because I have to stand on my tip-toes to reach it, and since it was already heavy it meant for an annoying experience getting it to budge. But once that beam was away from the door, the other three weren't as much of a challenge. After a few minutes of grunting and heaving, I walked back over to the hub and flipped the switch again. The retracting door brought light to another part of the room. It took the dogs about a minute to clear out, and then I hit the second switch and a dull _thunk!_ from every cage signified the lifted doors. The dogs in the middle row of kennels went through the back and came out of the bottom kennels.

After they were gone, I repeated the process with the topmost row.

Satisfied, I walked out the same exit into the dogs' area. It was the size of two football fields, and it had actually been a foot ball field and its old parking lot, and surrounded by three layers of fencing, with barbed wire on top and sharpened pikes in between the gaps and in front on the fences. I hated the thought of one of them getting in. And just to make sure the dogs didn't get out, I had (barely managed to) installed an invisible electric fence that gave them a light zap on their collars if they got too close to the fences.

I checked my watch. Only eight in the morning, I thought. That gives me a lot of time.

The dogs were happily playing with each other and with their toys, so I left them and walked back over to Q.

"Hey, Q, I was wondering if-" I was cut off mid-sentence by Carter and Vince running up to us and Carter nearly crashing into me. Both were out of breath.

"Man- if you- could-" Carter was out of breath, and mumbled his sentences.

"Catch your breath, man." After a minute he did. "Where did you come from?"

"East Loop." I was shocked. That area was at least two and a half, three miles away. If they had walked over there, that meant they had run back in roughly ten to twelve minutes. "But that don't matter. It's what we found."

"What? What was it?"

"It was big. Freakin' huge."

Even though I knew full well what Carter was talking about, I had to ask what it was.

"Hive. Big one, too. Pushing class A."

Hives were where they slept during the day, and to get an idea of how many there were in a hive, they had designed a class system. 'Kinda big', 'Big' and 'You're totally fucked' didn't really cut it.

Class A meant at least 100 Infected.

"All right. Carter, Vince, load up one of the pick-ups with as many stakes as we got. You three are coming with me. Q, I trust you'll be fine here."

"No. Carter, stay here. There is not need for stakes." Q said definitively.

"What?" I asked.

"You heard me. There is no longer a need for stakes."

"What?" I couldn't help but ask again.

"Come. Come over here and look," Hamilton said as he walked over towards the table, grabbed the fabric and yanked it off, revealing what was underneath it. Everyone but Hamilton and Cassidy gaped. In a neat row lay twenty highly polished, long and exquisitely crafted swords, each a hook angled towards the hilt on one side and a small thorn-like extension in the middle of the other.

"What the hell are these?" Carter asked.

"Swords."

"But what good are these? You have to put a stake through the heart to kill them, don't you?" I asked.

"No." Q replied

"But… how?"

"You must remember that these are not vampires. They are only tormented, mutated humans," Doc said behind them. He walked over to them as he whipped his hands on a white towel. "Hamilton, I thought we agreed to tell everyone together."

"Couldn't be helped. Carter has just discovered a class A hive."

"Oh, has he? Well, that does permit exception."

"Wait. Okay, everybody just hold on for just one minute," I interjected forcefully. "How the hell does this…? What the hell is this all about? The Infected need to have a stake driven into their hearts. That's what the legends say."

"Remember, Sam, these are not vampires. They are mutated humans. You don't need a stake in the heart to kill them. Let me explain." Doc turned around and walked back to the lab, signaling for them to all follow.

**Am I doing good? Please review, it makes me happy.**


	3. An Explination

Inside, we all grouped together around the corpse on the examining table.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but none of you have an intimate knowledge on anatomy." No-one corrected him; we almost all had never gone, were in or just out of college, but none majored in a science like Doc. Hamilton was just smart.

"So, could any of you answer why you all seem to always hit the heart?"

After a pause, I spoke up. "Maybe we're just lucky?"

"No. In fact, many of you have brought me bodies that had stakes nowhere near the heart. Yet they were all dead. So I began to wonder how it was that these things died from a stake in the chest but not a shotgun or Desert Eagle." He moved over to his laptop, which was connected to a TV like display, and hit a key. The screensaver vanished and was replaced by a slideshow of pictures. Almost all were of a capsule like bacteria; some were just the bacteria, others were of it seemingly swallowing a blood cell.

I walked over to the display, staring intently at the germ.

"Is this…?" I couldn't even finish my sentence.

"Yes. That," Doc pointed at the germ, "is the cause of all of this."

"So this germ, it…"

Doc nodded.

"Incredible," I whispered. To think that the thing to topple governments and destroy countries, that decimated the population and made those _things_ was right there. A tiny germ.

"How?"

"Well, I cannot be a hundred percent sure about all of this, and granted there are things still unexplainable, but this is what I have.

"The _vampiris_, as I call it, is a bacillus bacterium. It exists in the blood stream of humans and, sometimes, dogs, pigs and cats, where it can readily find its food, which you should probably suspect to be blood. Now, you must understand that vampiris lives off fresh blood. In our blood stream, it causes the movement of molecules across cell membranes to stop. It also slows down blood's movement through the veins when the heart pumps.

"Once it has spread throughout the host, it regulates every single organ and is the supplier of energy, thus the Infected no longer need to eat. But should they run out of fresh blood, the host's body becomes an unfavorable environment for the bacteria to live, so the bacterium does what all others do.

"They begin to form tiny spores that, when they meet favorable conditions, can evolve into true vampiris bacteria. But they can also produce bacteriophages, viruses which hunt down and kill the bacteria, thus-"

"Killing the host." I interrupted.

Doc smiled and nodded. "Yes. However, there are many weaknesses the germ and the Infected have as a result of the germ's infection of the host."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vince asked.

"Well, for one thing, there are two ways that the vampiris lives. It is a facultative saprophyte, living either without oxygen, called anaerobic, or with oxygen, called aerobic. You are most familiar with the anaerobic germ. Inside the blood stream it is fed fresh blood, and, in return, it gives the host energy to get more fresh blood."

"So it's symbiotic?"

"Not entirely. You see, when the bacteria are exposed to oxygen, its way of survival changes instantly. It becomes parasitic. It eats the host."

"Well, there's oxygen in the blood. Why doesn't it die from oxygenated blood?"

"There is no oxygenated blood in the infected. While they do breathe, their blood takes no oxygen from the lungs, so neither does the blood carry oxygen, nor do they need to breathe."

"How does that happen? Someone can't just stop breathing, they'd die," Carter piped in.

I answered. "That's the key, isn't it? When they die, the body is purged of all oxygen in the bloodstream. That's when the bacterium takes control of the body's functions. Right, Doc?"

"Yes. That's right. It gives the illusion that the person came back from the dead. And technically, they have."

"Then how does the germ live in the body of someone who's still alive? There's oxygen in their blood, 'cause they're still living."

Doc rounded on the rest of them. "Can anyone guess the answer to that question, class? Anyone?" He paused. "No-one. Well, I can't say teaching was really the bone for this old dog."

"Spores. That's how they live."

"Correct, Sam. Very well done. And can you guess why?"

"Well, you said the bacteria makes spores when it can't live in one environment, and the spores won't germinate until conditions are favorable."

"Yes…"

"Maybe, when the host dies and conditions become unfavorable and the bacteria makes the spores and they go off and infect some-one else; maybe the spores make a person sick, and as conditions become more favorable, the spores throughout the body germinate, and the person gets sicker and sicker until they die and the bacteria takes control of the body."

"Excellent. Now, before you ask any questions or interrupt further," he glared at me, "let me finish explaining.

"The _vampiris _has a number of weaknesses, some as a bacteria, others that it gives to its host. For instance look what happens to the bacteria when it is exposed to sunlight, specifically UV." As he said that, he tapped a key on the laptop, and on the screen the picture changed to the _vampiris, _but the normally capsule like bacteria had decomposed into a twisted, rotten version of the image that it had once been.

"What the hell happened up in here?" Vince asked.

"This is the result of exposure to ultraviolet light. Once exposed to that specific light frequency, the bacteria rapidly begins to breakdown. Thus, the Infected cannot go out into the sunlight, or the UV will kill the bacteria, then all the organs shut down, and leading to the overall death of the host."

"Uh, Doc, sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering…"

"What is it, Carter?"

"Well, you said the bacteria eat the host once it decomposes."

"Yes?"

"Then, why is this one," he jerked his thumb behind him to the corpse on the examination tray, "still pretty fresh lookin'?"

"Oh, quiet sorry. Completely forgot. You see, the longer a host has been undead, the faster it decomposes once the body is exposed to air."

"Oh. So why…"

"Please save all questions for the end of the tour.

"Now, when the bacteria gathers in the sinuses, exposure to garlic enflames the smell receptors, causing anymore exposure to garlic's extremely pungent odor to be so overwhelming it actually becomes painful. Thus they avoid it like the plague. Pun intended.

"Also, the bacteria cause something else to the host." He paused for a minute.

"What? What is it?" I asked.

"Brain damage."

"What? What are you talking about? Is that why they're so stupid?"

"No, Sam. Now will you let me continue?"

"Sure. Sorry. Go ahead," I motioned to him with a jerk of my head.

"It's a phenomenon I have only encountered once in my two decades of dissecting. It's called 'hysterical blindness', a condition that causes blindness to one or several things. For example, the cross. A Christian Infected will fear the cross because of the legend that vampires fear the cross; the hysterical blindness causes them to be blind to the fact that the cross is bringing them no real harm.

"I recall a story that you told me," he looked at me, "about when you came across an Infected who had a rather large beard and the remnants of a turban around him?" I nodded. "When you showed him your cross, it had no effect on him."

"Yeah," I said, "I bagged him and brought him here, just for you."

"And I thank you for that. Would you like to see what became of him?"

"You kept him here?!" That pissed me off. The Infected where extremely dangerous, and keeping one here… what if it got free? There were too many variables to have one, even if it was stuck in a bank vault. That thing was still a danger.

"Relax. I have them under complete control."

"THEM?!?!"

"Yes, them. And if you think that I would hold them without caring for any sort of containment measure, then you are sorely mistaken. Frankly, your assumption of my lack of caring for your safety is unnerving. I cannot stress enough that that alone is my primary concern. Now, if you please, follow me." I could tell that I had pushed a nerve on Doc. The venom in his voice was evident.

Doc walked around us, and took the right from the entrance hallway. We were led into a dark room that was probably a little smaller than the animal's warehouse. Without breaking stride, he flipped a switch on the side, and the area filled with light. Along both sides of the room, Plexiglas sealed off what were best described as holding cells. They were divided into separate sections, each less than five feet by seven feet.

I walked over to one of the sheets of glass and rapped on it with a finger. "And you're sure that _this _will protect us from them?"

"Well, aside from the fact that," his sentence was cut off by a loud thud, and I jumped as the Infected slammed into the Plexiglas less that six inches away from me. The Infected, it was once a man, continued to slam against it, but the Plexiglas refused to crack even in the slightest.

"What the hell man?! Those things should be in a coma by now!" Carter shouted.

"Don't shout. You'll just aggravate them even more."

"Your keeping those things, what, a hundred feet from us with only an inch of glass to hold 'em back, and you tell us to calm down?! They're awake!!" Carter shouted back.

The other Infected, some of whom I realized had been sleeping, were moving around. They too started screaming and wailing, slamming against the Plexiglas hoping to gain freedom and food.

"Oh, damn it, look what you did," Doc muttered. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote, and pushed a button. Immediately, above our heads there was a quick flash, and an eerie violet glow filled the room and lingered for only a second.

But every single one of the Infected cried out and grabbed at their bodies, wiggling and thrashing on the ground.

While we all looked in different directions, Doc sighed and deposited the remote in his coat.

"I chose Plexiglas because not only is it strong, it absorbs no ultraviolet light.

"I equipped the Plexiglas with an infrared beam that runs through the sheets. Should the beam be interrupted, which is only possible if the glass is cracked or broken, then the room is flooded with UV for ten minutes. If one of the Infected cracked their cell, they will all die. Now follow me." As we walked, I looked at the Infected. They were more animal like than I ever remembered seeing them; they also carried their bodies in a different way.

"Hey, Doc, why do these ones look so weak? And why are they acting crazy? And how are they awake?"

"Well, most of these haven't had any food in a few months, so they will be weaker. My guess is that as the body deteriorates from lack of fresh blood, they start to lose what shred of humanity they had left. Total animals now. And they are conscience becaue I fooled their biological clock. Here we are."

He turned sharply to face one of the Infected, what had been a young and probably beautiful woman. He pulled out the remote and pushed several buttons. What I recognized as a Master Controller sent a signal out, and the light bulbs dimmed all around us, except for the one above the woman's cell, and another cell right down the hall.

Though I only got a brief glimpse at the person inside, he looked vaguely familiar, but before I could look any deeper, Doc called our attention.

"This Infected was a Roman Catholic."

"How do you know that?" Carter asked.

"Simple," Doc replied. He rapped on the Plexi just like I had done, and the woman who had previously been on the opposite side screamed and charged at us, jumping mid-way.

Moments before impact, Doc, with the speed and reaction of a much younger man, reached into his coat and pulled out an ornate cross of silver. The woman's facial expression changed from fury and hunger to fear in an instant.

She tried to maneuver away from the cross, but her momentum carried her through and she crashed into the Plexiglas. Recovering, she scampered back to the corner, holding her head in her hands, shielding herself from the sight of the cross.

Depositing the cross in his pocket, Doc moved on to the other cage that was lighted.

Inside was the man who Doc had talked to him about. Whatever his original garments were, they were unrecognizable. It was difficult to tell what color they had originally been. Doc repeated the process with this man, but when he was shown the cross, the man had no reaction.

"You see?" Doc asked as he turned to them. "This man was not Roman Catholic. Nor was he a Christian at all. He does not react to the cross because the legend is not a part of his culture. However, show him this…" As the man made to jump into the Plexiglas again, Doc reached into another pocket and pulled out a small black book with golden edges on the paper and a golden fabric that served as a bookmark. The book had the same effect on the man as the cross had had on the woman.

"Wait. How…?" Carter was confused. Granted, he never was a bright one.

"The woman," Doc explained patiently, "was a Christian before she became infected. Thus, because of that, she had the idea that vampires are hurt by crosses, and remains blind to the fact that the cross inflicts no bodily damage on her whatsoever. This man," he motioned to the man before them, "was a Muslim. The cross had no effect on him, but the Qur'an does, in the same way that a Qur'an will not affect a Jew or a Christian. The Bible will affect some Muslims, some Jews and all Christians. The Torah frightens all three of them because they are the five basic books of the Old Testament that all three religions find their origins from."

Doc led them out of the room, where he fooled with the remote, shutting off all the lights, and then closed the heavy door behind them, continuing his lecture all the while.

"It is important to realize that these people are under heavy mental duress. As you all know, yellow journalism was as much a plague as the _vampiris_ was, and all these stories about the dead coming back as vampires scared the public greatly. Downright terrified to go out at night. Being infected meant a possible fate worse then death, to become the monster that human kind has loathed for centuries, and that was soon an overwhelming fear. Even more so when the people _did_ start coming back from the dead in their own neighborhood. Now things had gone from being rumored all throughout the country to having nightmarish creatures springing up from where they were buried.

"The only good thing that came out of the press was the executive order to burn all the bodies of the dead. While many people snuck off and buried their husbands, wives, children and so forth, most of the people complied, and most of the Infected's bodies were burned. How many would actually come back, we don't know for sure.

"Still, can you imagine the duress these people felt when they learned they were going to die? Even more so, to have those fears confirmed, to wake up, buried in the ground and dead, to know that death had not brought rest? That certainly could break what was left of the mind. And that is why we have those things acting so…"

"Stupidly?" I provided.

"You could say that. And you could not say anything at all, thank you very much."

"All right, Doc. We get this. So why don't they die from-"

"I was getting to that. Quiet, please." Again we gathered around the corpse on the examining tray. "Please observe the sunlight coming through that," he motioned to one window, "window. If the bacteria in this body were exposed to sunlight in one area, it would awaken this man, giving him enough energy to get away from the light. However, that energy is limited, and shuts off as soon as the body is safe from daylight. While ineffective in some conditions, it does permit the host to get to safety. Since this host is dead, we must go to another one. Follow."

We followed the same path we had before, then to the end of the Plexiglas hallway. Doc opened the door which I had not seen before, then led us into a small, more square-like room. We were greeted by the shriek of an animal. I jumped back as I realized an Infected was charging at us. Carter, Vince and I panicked, but the others didn't.

"Cassidy, be a good man and bring me one of the swords. Thank you," I heard Q say. Cassidy went back out of the room. Then I noticed that the Infected was chained and behind Plexiglas.

"She's awake. Damn. I had hoped to give you a demonstration. Ah, well. To other matters.

"One remarkable thing I have noticed," Doc started out, "is that the _vampiris_ forms a sort of tar like glue around and inside the body. This glue protects, to some extent, the insides from coming into contact with oxygen. Still, the glue can be broken. While the force of impact plays a role in the damage of glue and body, mass plays the most important role. Too small an object will have no effect on the glue."

I stared blankly.

Somebody else did too.

I hope.

"Bullets." He said. Before I could do anything, he picked up a gun from a desk and moved over to a large metal object on the Plexiglas that I realized to be a handle. Even as I moved to stop him, he slid open the door and fired at the Infected when it charged and jumped.

Its body jerked in mid-air, then was caught by the shackles attached to the wall. Doc kept firing after its body tumbled to the ground, the Infected crying out in an animal voice that was all too human.

Doc jettisoned the clip, and the metal creaking of the door behind them alerted them to Cassidy's return. In his hand was a long sword.

"Mr. Hamilton and I worked together for quite some time before we were able to decide what kind of weapon was best. We settled on a sword, a variant of the Spartan Xiphos to be specific, because it is well suited for both stabbing and slicing. I dare say this is Q's finest work yet."

"But it did take me quite some time to get the process down. Now we have enough of these swords for everyone. Cassidy, you may do the honors." After some hesitation on Cassidy's part and some encouragement on Q's, he stepped up towards the Infected. It flinched back, centered itself, then charged at Cassidy; Cassidy swung the sword, and metal and flesh collided.

Blood splattered the floor and wall, and the Infected groped at its right side. There was a long, deep gash in the flesh; it looked at its bloodied hands, then looked up at us. It screamed, and fell to the floor, withering and screeching so loud, I thought the Plexi would shatter.

Then, from the hole and spreading to the rest of the body from there, the flesh turned a grey color, a fell from the body.

The flesh, I realized, was turning into ash.

"What you see before you is the other side of the _vampiris_ bacteria. It is now eating the host, and leaving only, what is close to it in compostition, ashes. You see, when a bullet hits the flesh of an Infected, the body glue prevents the bullet from penetrating, so the bullet does no damage to the flesh. This process is repeated with every bullet that strikes an Infected. Since the body is sealed off before the _vampiris_ is exposed to oxygen, bullets have no effect, no matter how many there are."

"And there are no exceptions?" I asked.

"Well, some manner of explosive round would work, but not nearly as well as a sword or stake. And can you guess why?"

"Uh, because they open the body up?"

"Open the body and keep it open, nullifying the body glue. It lets the air in. A deep cut like the one you just observed is all that is needed to kill an Infected. But please realize that the longer someone has been dead, the quicker they become ashes. And if they are asleep, they will wake up, so be sure to watch yourselves."

Q clapped his hands together. "Well, it seems that you are all ready. Its," he checked his watch, "near noon. Go now, and don't forget to pick up your swords on the way."

"Wait," I said. "Aren't you gonna teach us how to use those things?" I gestured at the sword in Cassidy's hands.

"What's to learn? Just aim and stab. They are not going to move, so it's not like rocket science."

I lead the way out, unsure about what we were getting ourselves into.

**Well, what do you think? And for the swords, think 300. Review or you will die!  
**


	4. Hunting

"Lead the way Carter," I said before I hopped into my Dodge Nitro. We all had our own cars, and each was customized now.

The headlamps had UV, and I had gotten a UV spotlight up on the roof, so if the shit ever hit the fan, I was ready. I also had used some car paint to make decals of crosses all along the car. I planned on adding a Star of David and the crescent moon, but that could wait.

In the backseat I kept some garlic in a large box, a radio and a horn. We did use radios, but horns were used just as much; a designated pattern for different meanings and since there was no other noise, we could always tell where it was coming from.

I laid the sword down on the passenger seat, put the key in the ignition and turned it; the engine roared to life and the four of us sped off, Carter and Vince in front, Cassidy and I in back. Over the course of the journey both of our groups of two kept leapfrogging, until we finally came to the grocery store.

Carter kept going for about another block, then he and Vince turned their cars sharply to face a tall office building. Tires squealed as Cassidy and I repeated the action. Time not being on our side, and it not being something we could waste, we pilled out. Four dull _thunks! _signified everyone was out and ready.

Cassidy started going for the front door, but Carter called him out, then pointed to the garage under the building. Swords at the ready, we followed him and Vince down. Almost immediately, we came across a sleeping Infected. There was a nasty burn on its leg, so that meant it had just barely gotten inside in time.

"We saw this one trying to get inside. My guess is that it got caught in the light before it could get back, and finally got a lucky break and was able to get to safety," Carter whispered.

"Obviously it wasn't that lucky," I said, more about the burn then it getting spotted.

"Guess it wasn't. We saw it," Vince added. I nodded. That was true.

"Well, Vince, I guess you get the honors," I said.

Steadying the sword in his grip, he lifted it above his head and brought it down into the creature's chest. As blood gushed out, its eyes flew open and it screamed long and hard, then fell silent. Its thrashes became twitches, then it moved no more. "Alright, Cassidy is with me. Leapfrog teams on my call," I said.

Cassidy followed right behind me to the stairs. I moved to the side, and he kicked the door off its hinges; I looped around his shoulder and looked up the stairs. He took the back of the stairwell.

"Got one," he said before an Infected cried out. He returned to view, his sword bloody. Carter and Vince came up behind us.

"Uh, no offense, but I don't think groups is a good idea," Carter said.

"Why not?"

"There are at least 200 Infected."

"What?! Why didn't you say 200?!"

"I said it was pushin' class A."

"That means less!"

"That means more! I guess you got lost in translation."

"We both speak English!"

"Well we can't do anything about it now. Best to get it over it."

I sighed. He was right, there was nothing that could be done about it now. Plus they weren't any real danger when they were in coma.

We split up, fanning out across each level. There were by my guess seven floors, and each floor was roughly 500' by 350', so that meant this could take some time.

When we first came up, I realized immediatley how Carter knew there were so many. The stench of death was overwhelming.

At the first floor we split up, and I went right. I realized that I had forgoten to use my flashlight, so I pulled it out of my pocket, flipped it on and continued down the hall until I came to the first office door. It was partially open, so I pushed it open and silently crept in. In two rows sat ten desks; I made my way around them and turned down the center, looking under every desk. At the front, a man and a woman slept silently together, holding each other.

I recognized twin wedding bands around their fingers.

I paused for only a moment, then reached across them and pulled them out from under their cover. They still unconsciously held on to one another, and the woman ended up lying on top of the man. Scowling to myself, I raised the sharp metal above my head, then brought it down.

The cool steel went straight through the woman's stomach, and punctured the man's own. They cried out in pain together, trashing as themselves and each other. And when blood began to flow out of the man's mouth, his wife leaned over and kissed him.

No, not kissing him, I realized, but drinking his blood. _His own wife drinking his blood as he died! The monsters deserved to die!_

Enraged, I took from my thigh the large Bowie knife I always kept with me, leaned over and grabbed the woman's hair, yanked her head back, put the blade to her throat and pulled back and away. Her own blood spilled out from her neck, bathing her husband in it, and then I pushed her body away and slit the man's throat. It took them both another minute to finally die. I stood and tried to yank the sword out, but it only lurched in their bodies. I pressed my boot against their corpses and pulled again, and like Arthur and the Sword in the Stone, the sword came out with a mighty wrench. I checked the other parts of the office before leaving, then went on to the next.

Before long, I began to lose count of how many of the things I had killed. But I had killed a lot, and that was good enough for me.

We all met up on the seventh floor, every one of us dirty, sweaty and bloody. We all went into the floor together, as I knew from a past job that it was all one office, with only a few private rooms. This would be a good place for some infected to hide because there were only a few windows. This building was in the middle of a renovation that was cut sort because of the plague, so this area was still pretty old.

We all went in together, and the screams of agony started off almost immediately. I went over to the far right area, with Cassidy taking left. An old man and an old woman, a fat man, several young men and a few young women. They all met my blade. I'm not sure, but I think I smiled.

It was completely quiet aside from the death screams.

Silent death.

That's what we were.

Effective hunters, killers that could hunt down and kill any Infected. Because while they slept, we hunted. And there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.

I did a double take. Inside a private office, I had thought I had seen something move. There was no light; the window was blocked off in a black fabric for the renovation, but the Infected couldn't overcome their slumber during the day, unless you messed with their biological clock like Doc had.

I opened the door, and looked around with my flashlight. Nothing. I turned to go when I thought I saw it again out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly, my heart pounding out of my chest. The flashlight's light fell upon a girl, maybe sixteen years old. She had long blonde hair that was unkempt, and her long white dress was dirty and tattered. She looked at the ground twiddling her bare feet like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

I faintly heard her singing.

"_Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of posies…"_

"Don't be scared little girl. I'm here to save you. It's all right," I said. But in truth I was more scared than she could ever be.

"_Ashes, ashes…"_

"Come with me. Your safe now."

"_We all fall down."_ She looked up at me.

I recognized the teeth.

The canines.

The fangs.

They were red with blood.

She jumped at me, and all I had time to do was stick the sword out as I did a back-step. There was a sickening crunch, and the sword became extremely heavy. I took my arm away from my face to see what had happened.

The girl was impaled on the sword, and a red stain on her dress was growing. I realized how close she was to me.

Her mouth opened and closed, teeth gashing at my neck, not less than a millimeter away.

Her breasts rose and fell, pressing against my own chest.

Her legs wrapped around my waist, trying to pull me closer.

Her hands wrapped around my shoulders, grabbing at my whole body.

Then she leaned in and kissed me, forcefully, full on. My lips struggled, but before I could get away, she went limp. I wrestled her away from me, then lay her on the ground and pulled the sword out of her. The fabric caught on the blade and the whole front of the dress was pulled off.

I looked away, but something caught my attention, so, hesitantly, I looked down again. The girl's bra and panties were ripped apart, and blood trickled down from between her inner thighs.

Something caught in my throat, and my heart started pounding again.

_Dear God in heaven, don't let this be what I think it is._

I walked slowly, as if the carpeting was a minefield, around to the end of the desk. Underneath, a man lay sleeping, a twisted and sadistic grin of victory on his face. His pants were ruffled, and on his right two forefingers, there was a tiny amount of blood.

I had to choke back down my heart.

My eyes brimmed with tears, and I clenched my hands so tightly they scratched into my palms.

Even among monsters there were still monsters.

I remember grabbing the man and throwing him towards the window. The plastic ripped, and the thing screamed as it fell to the ground.

I backed away, scared at myself and what I had done. My heel struck the girl's body, and I lurched away when I felt her move. I rounded on her, sword at the ready, but lowered it as I saw the grey patch that was slowly extending out from the wound.

She looked up at me, gesturing at me to come closer with one finger. Hesitant, I leaned down on one knee, then the other.

She seemed to be trying to whisper something; for a moment I forgot everything and leaned in. In a flurry of movement, she grabbed my head and pulled me in for an animalistic kiss, then grinded her womanhood against my waist. I fought back, but one hand left the back of my head and grabbed at my manhood.

We wrestled for barely a minute; I realized that she didn't want my blood, and I may have not fought back as hard as I could have.

Finally with a momentous heave, I pushed her off of me, grabbed my sword and sliced her neck. I was prepared to swing again, but I stopped when I realized how awkward she looked. After a moment, her head swung down to the left and dangled by only a few tendons, her surprised face bobbing up and down in a revolting manner.

_So close to death, and she still wanted me. She wanted me!! _I was disgusted and enraged; I tasted vomit. Crawling towards her, I swung the sword at her body again, then again and again. Every time the metal sliced, more blood flowed.

In less than a minute, every reason why I hated these things came flooding back into my mind, overwhelming me. I don't know how long I cried, but eventually I felt a strong hand on my shoulder.

----

Everything seemed fuzzy from then on.

I barely remember driving back home.

I immediately went up to my apartment.

Behind me I heard Cassidy shouting out that they were dividing my evening chores; I think I shouted down something about the dogs, but I'm not completely sure.

In my room, I checked the clock.

4:30.

It didn't matter to me.

I went over to all the windows and pulled the large metal and wood guards from behind; they collided with a loud noise I didn't hear, and I pulled the three large braced from behind each guard, securing the windows.

I went up the flight of stairs to my bedroom, and turned on the stereo. From every corner of my apartment, music ranging from My Chemical Romance to Trick Daddy blasted at the woodwork.

I didn't care too much about the music.

Its sole purpose was to drown them out.

Retiring for the day, I crept into bed, stuffed my pillow over my ears, and cried myself into a nightmare ridden sleep.

**There you have it. From now on its going to be centered around him and everyone's state of mental health while they cope with this. And there will still be a lot of blood and killing, bu it won't be taken lightly. Review!**


	5. Coping

I woke the next day to my alarm going off. The earsplitting beep was killing my ears, so I turned it off, then lay back down in bed. I stared up at the ceiling, because I could think of anything else to do. I rolled over onto my side.

Then onto my back.

Then over to my other side.

And back again.

From the silence, I could just barely hear the cars and trucks of my friends. Screaming only to myself, I picked up my pillow and crushed my head with it. Then I flipped over and started beating my head into the headboard. The sound was deafening. After things started to get blurry, I stopped and resigned myself to samwhiching my head in between two pillows.

And I waited.

For what, I have no clue. Probably answers. God knows, I had millions of questions. Everything you could think of asking, I wanted to know the answers. Some of the questions I already knew the answers. I wished I didn't. I wished I could have lived in ignorance; that would have been a great relief. But I don't.

Through the pillow, I heard my door open. Heavy footsteps headed towards the stairs, then up them and to my room. When I heard the knock, I told them to come in, but I had no intention of getting up. Several light clicks on the ground headed towards me, and then I felt a rough, wet tongue on my hand.

My back cracked as I sat up to rub the dog's head. His playful eyes met mine, and though I knew mine were filled with sadness, the dog didn't care. He stilled cared about me. I smiled and even laughed a bit as he trotted up to me and lay down next to me, exposing his belly. I began a very enjoyable belly rub. His leg twitched every so often, and his tongue hang out of his mouth, breathes expelling out in pants.

"Are you feeling well again, my friend?" Vlad asked.

"I feel fine."

"Then why do you sleep so much?"

"I don't feel well," I replied. _Damn_, I thought as the words spilled out.

"I think you do not rest because you are sick. I think you hide from light."

"What? I can't get infected, you know that. None of us can." Vlad walked over to my fireplace. On the mantel were several pictures in ornate silver frames, holding captive the images of my friends and family. He picked up the one in the middle. I knew that on that paper, my old girlfriend smiled at him.

"Where I come from, light means truth. You hide away now because you have seen the worst of this new world, and you wish it was not so. You hide to save yourself. That is what you think."

My mouth was half open. I had always hated these heart to heart mushy talks. They were always such a load of crap. I wanted to say something to disprove him, to show him that I wasn't hiding, just to argue, but I also knew he was right.

"When you are ready, come back out into the light, and you will see the best this world has to show. But until then, he will keep you company," motioning to the dog who lay at my hand's mercy. Before I could protest, Vlad walked out. _Damn it, _I thought,_why does he have to be such a good speaker? He doesn't even speak proper English half the time!_

----

The next hour passed slowly. I got out of bed and made breakfast. Then I went over to the TV and popped in a DVD. I didn't know what the movie was, but I watched it. After a few minutes I stopped the movie and picked up a book.

Heroditus.

I flipped open to a random page, then read. The battle of Thermopylae; were a force of under 2,000 stood to the last man, fighting bravely and dying nobly for a greater cause.

Freedom was what they fought for. Freedom from a dark empire bent on consuming Greece and her peoples. The Spartans and their allies had fought to the death for that higher cause. Together, from their sacrifice, every city-state of Greece was saved.

I put down the text.

They had fought against a monster they could not defeat, had died, and still had secured victory.

Maybe we could, too. Maybe we could defeat the vampires, save humanity, and fix the world. It was nearly impossible, but maybe we could do it.

Without the complete annihilation of ourselves in the process, hopefully.

And if we were to die, well, it would be one hell of a going out bang.

**Sorry for the delay! I've been really busy. A huge thanks to the people who reviewed my work. However, there are some discrepancies****. 331 hits and only 6 reviews?! I'm insulted! Review, people! I write this and put it up so I can know what other people think! If you read it, please review it! Just don't flame. Also, I would like to thank the people who have reviewed. All four of you. Thanks you so much. Really. No joke.  
**

**If you read the story, then review. If you like it, send it to other people. Its gonna be hard getting this fic to the people. Its been up a while, but only 331 hits? Help me out here people! Hugs and cookies for the person who can bring in the most reviews/hits!! Hell, I'll even give you money!  
**


	6. Writers Note

A note to my beloved readers:

I am truly sorry about my delayed updates! The way I write is by multiple chapters at one upload, and I will do my best to get the next three chapters of "No Matter What" and "We Are Legends" up by this Saturday. I've just been swamped with homework but I was able to write out the next two chapters of No Matter What this weekend. If all goes well you'll see four chapters up by Friday. I do wish to thank everyone who has reviewed my work and who favorited/ alerted me or my stories. You have no idea how great your encouragement is. As for the stories:

No Matter What is going to be a kind of drama/ tension/ arguement with Naruto and the Fox, and it is really complex. I'm also working Hinata into helping Naruto.

Now we start pushing into the Haku arc!

We Are Legends is going to be the main character coping with the strains of having to survive. A major thanks is owed to my best friend Reed from Warren (?), Vermont. He is the genius who is writing the whole story. I'm just putting it out there. He's been amazed at the feedback. Keep encouraging him! He wants to know that people really value his work (uber shy).

Also, if you read No Matter What, then read We Are Legends, and vice versa. And read Raining, too. I'm not too sure about revising it. Tell me if you do.

Any help spreading my work and Reed's would be wonderful! I would be forever in the debt of whoever coud get more readers. My goal is to make people happy!

Hugs and kisses! Amy

(Reed sends a smirk)


End file.
